Steel’s Silver Ferns back for pre-season outings
New Southern Steel coach Reinga Bloxham is eager to hit the court with her four Silver Ferns players on board.
The Steel spent some time recently in Australia where they played the Sunshine Coast in two games.
However, the two pre-season outings to date have been without Shannon Francois, Gina Crampton, Te Paea Selby-Rickit and Jane Watson.
Tomorrow, they will take on the Netball South team in Oamaru before the following weekend taking on the Mainland Tactix in two games in Dunedin.
Bloxham said it was nice to be working with the entire squad leading into the next stage of the pre-season.
‘‘We’ve just got our squad all back together and now we need to get that match play under our belts,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s massively important that we start getting our structures organised.
‘‘We talked about how nice it is to have everyone back and some- times it feels quite easy but we need to make sure we are nailing everything, fine-tuning things and just changing it up slightly.
‘‘We don’t just want to be what we were last year – we want to be even better.
‘‘For us it’s really important to get everyone out on court . . . results are not my focus, it’s about making sure we are gelling together and trying some things out.
‘‘The progress being made has been fantastic.
‘‘The girls have been working extremely hard in the gym and on the track.
‘‘There’s some sore bodies but they know in a few weeks’ time it’s all going to pay off.’’
The squad will train in Oamaru today before the game tomorrow.
Bloxham was hopeful the Oamaru public would take the chance to come along and meet the team.
‘‘The more people we can get there the merrier. We know our job is to connect with the community and I’m more than happy for people to come and see what we’re going. It’s not a top secret mission.
‘‘The girls love having people along at training and I really enjoy when they ask questions and get excited about what we’re doing. I just think ‘oh yeah, this is what it’s all about’,’’ Bloxham said.